ABSTRACT
That video games can elicit emotional responses in players is perhaps the least controversial claim that can be made about video games. However, there is a lack of unity among video game researchers regarding the specifics of how video games elicit emotions, how players manage these emotional responses, and how video-game induced emotions affect subsequent decision making. Video games offer unique experiences as compared with other media; whereas emotional responses to purely narrative media, such as film and TV, are more consistent with empathic and non-agentic emotions, the emotional responses to video games are more consistent with vicarious emotional responses and agentic emotions. Yet, despite these differences, only a little amount of research and theory has been successful in adapting and modifying research on narrative media to build an overarching theoretical framework that could guide examinations of the emotional responses elicited by video games. To date, the progress made by various researchers has been largely isolated and targeted toward specific questions rather than general processes. This chapter seeks to develop the building blocks of an overarching theoretical perspective that could guide future research. The current literature of the emotional experiences underlying video game play is described in the hope that the efforts of various researchers can be focused toward a more unified theoretical perspective. Shortcomings of current theoretical understandings are outlined and solutions are proposed for overcoming them.
